One feature that has caused quite a bit of controversy with
consumers has been the User Account Control (UAC) that is included in Windows
Vista. UAC prompts nag users for simple operations such as going to device
manager, emptying the recycle bin, or installing/uninstalling an application.

David Cross, a product manager responsible for designing
UAC, gave the real reason for UAC at the RSA 2008 conference in San Francisco
yesterday. "The reason we put UAC into the platform was to annoy users. I'm
serious," remarked Cross.

Cross added that Microsoft's unorthodox method to stop users
from wreaking havoc with their systems and to stop software makers from making
applications that delved too far into the Windows subsystem was a necessary
move.

"We needed to change the ecosystem, and we needed a
heavy hammer to do it," Cross added. Cross went on to say that although
UAC may be seen as an annoyance to some, but its lasting implications are far
more beneficial to Vista users. "Most users, on a daily basis, actually
have zero UAC prompts."

Many would say that many users have zero UAC prompts on a
daily basis because they have already disabled UAC -- not so says Microsoft.
According to Cross, 88% of Vista users have UAC enabled and 66% of Windows
sessions do not encounter UAC prompts.

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I think it's true. And although it did annoy me alot (I just turned it off) I considered it to be, as in many features in Vista, a necessary evil.There had to be a point where they started to revamp many things including security, even if it meant annoying users and companys like Symantec. I would have even preferred they released only x64 versions (eventualy it will have to happen) but all the fuzz would have been even worse.I think Vista will not me remembered like a great or popular OS (altough I like it alot and haven't had any real problem), but it is a step in the correct direction and the things that will come from it will be very important.